My name is Ken

Category Archives: Singapore

I try to say something about each city or area that I go to and for the most part I think that I explained Singapore adequately in the last post. Except that I have a nagging feeling like I’m missing something here, some spot that everyone knows about and goes to, maybe somewhere that I’m just not aware of yet. I say that because I feel like it’s something like Barcelona in the way that there are so many people but they don’t seem to be doing anything except walking. Maybe they’re shopping, maybe they’re like me, thinking that they will stumble onto something fun… who knows? I do know that after about two hours of walking around tonight I was bored.

Most of my day was spent sightseeing, but the important part of my day was that I did my laundry. Let’s stop and think about this… this is the first time I’ve done all my washing since I left Dubai about seven weeks ago (I think). This is a momentous event of the summer and I wanted to share it with you. I’m sure some of the people around me would also be very happy too.

This morning was the end of the tour so at breakfast I said my goodbyes to the others on the tour. The guy that lost his passport did end up finding it when he went back to the border. He said that the guy that gave him his passport back actually lectured him on losing it and not going back to get it when he realized it was gone. The fact that the guard yesterday wouldn’t let him retrace his steps didn’t seem to have any bearing on the lecture though. The tour is over and for the most part I’m glad. I never really enjoyed being around these people and it was difficult for me nearly the whole time the tour was going to think of them as friends. On the other side though is that I feel kind of lonely now that they aren’t around. I guess sometimes you just can’t win.

So after my laundry was done I headed out to do some sightseeing around Singapore. The plan was to follow the route that a tour takes through the city, to see the most important items here. The tour was one of those, Hop-on Hop-off bus tours that all the major tourist destinations have. This worked out well because I had a map marked with the routes, sometimes I’d see the buses up ahead so I could just follow them, and I also got to do quite a bit of walking. I just haven’t felt like I’ve been active enough during the last couple of weeks. So I liked my plan. The only problem was that there still wasn’t that much to see. At least from what I could tell I didn’t see much at all until I followed the route to the marina where I was last night.

Today I did the sightseeing around the marina that I wanted to do last night. I didn’t have the battery power last night so today I went all around the area taking photos. I finally burned out at about 4 and headed back to the hotel for a shower and a little break. I went out again at about 6 and lasted until I got bored at 8. Tomorrow I’m heading to Manila, Philippines at 1030.

If I were to sum up Singapore it would be, shopping. It seems that there are more malls here than anywhere else I’ve been. Much of the life that I’ve seen here seems to take place in, or around the hundreds of malls that I’ve seen. Museums are attached to malls, hotels and metro stations are sometimes a part of them too. I think the statement I wrote yesterday about Singapore being a mature Dubai is accurate. I could see Dubai being like this city in about twenty more years.

I’ve been in Singapore now for about ten hours, and for the most part it’s been a pretty rough ten hours. One of the people on the tour lost their passport right after getting stamped for Singapore. There couldn’t have been more than 50 meters from passport control to customs, but he lost it somewhere in between the two. When he realized he tried to go back and find it, but the customs guy wouldn’t let him and he was forced to leave without it. Then when we got to the hotel it turned out that the group’s reservations were never confirmed. So there we were, six people, two of which were walking around all sad (I don’t blame them) and a tour leader upset because he was being embarrassed in front of the tour for not having the rooms All through it I’m kind of enjoying the whole thing, not the lost passport part, but the no rooms thing. I don’t know why but sometimes I like when life throws a wrench into the works. So I’m staying in a dorm room for the night, and as dorms go, this one isn’t bad.

As for Singapore… hmmm… it’s a mature Dubai. I’d heard stories that it was very developed, but I don’t think I was expecting what I ended up seeing today. Everything is at least Western equivalent if not higher, and I do mean everything too. The roads, the buildings, and everything else I can think of just appears new, or very well kept up, even the people seem super polite.

It was a coincidence but today is a holiday, I believe if I heard correctly it was National Day. Much of the day’s festivities were going to be happening at the marina, which so happens was where I was supposed to be meeting the rest of the group at 8. So when I left the hotel that was my first goal to get to the marina, because many of the streets were blocked off due to the celebration that was planned for later it took me quite a while to actually get to the marina and find the spot where we were going to meet. I also screwed up because the battery in my camera had only about a half charge… which means in battery lingo, it was nearly dead. It took me so long to get to the spot that I didn’t want to go back to the hotel for a new battery, and it also meant that didn’t want to go walking around taking pictures and kill the remaining bit of juice I had left. I ended up parking my butt in front of the railing at the marina at about 5 and waited until 8 for the fireworks to start. I know, right? That’s a long time to just wait, but fortunately there were a lot of other things that happened before the fireworks, there were fly-bys by fighter aircraft, demonstration of light watercraft from the navy, helicopter flyovers, skydivers, and a few other things that made the time go fairly quickly.

Because I got there so early I had the best seats for the fireworks, and they were spectacular too. I think at least from where I was sitting they were the best I’ve ever seen, though there’s no way I could ever really compare to other shows I’ve seen.

I’ve got one more night here and then I’m off for Manila. I’m hoping that tomorrow I’ll be able to see more of the city than I did today. BTW: the tour ends tomorrow morning so I’l be on my own from then on.